He Was Last Seen Banging On The Doors Of A Fast-Food Restaurant And Frantically Asking For Help On The Night Of A Snowstorm
In 1994, Joel Mark Wells, who went by Mark, was a 21-year-old father of two from Kentucky. Yet, following a fight with friends on the evening of a snowstorm, he vanished without a trace.
It all began on January 15, 1994, when Hazard, Kentucky, was hit with freezing temperatures and tons of snow. That same night, Mark was hanging out with his friends near the Black Gold Shopping Center.
But, things took a turn when he reportedly got into an argument with his friends and exited their car.
“They said they got into an argument because Mark was mad and upset. They said Mark got out of the car, and that was the last time they saw him,” remembered Mark’s sister, Pam Brewer.
He proceeded to walk to a nearby Burger King restaurant, which had closed early because of the storm.
Mark started banging on the Burger King’s doors, begging the workers inside to let him in. The fast-food joint’s employees had just locked up, and when they saw Mark outside, they called the police for assistance.
However, by the time the police arrived on the scene, Mark was already gone.
He was last seen by a Burger King employee as he ran towards the Kentucky 15 bypass. Later that same evening, a witness at a nearby Walmart called the police again. The witness claimed to have seen Mark running around the parking lot, frantically asking for help and trying to get into cars.
“He was just really erratic. The way he was running around, confused, scared to death, he was trying to get into vehicles or [away] from something chasing him,” detailed Hazard Police Chief Minor Allen.
konoplizkaya – stock.adobe.com – illustrative purposes only, not the actual person
But the storm, as well as a gruesome crime that had been committed in Hazard, Kentucky, the night before, seemingly put community members on edge.
One day prior, a local high schooler had been murdered while working at a gas station on Main Street. During a robbery, the student was shot to death.
The jarring murder made Hazard residents hesitant to help out Mark, a stranger.
“This young man who was killed, he was well-loved. It was a fearful thing. It was just like a fractured feeling around the community. A thing of shock, you know?” Chief Allen stated.
A police officer was sent to the Burger King and searched the premises for Mark. But he was never located, and police assumed he’d gotten a ride.
It wasn’t until Mark’s sisters filed a missing person report the following day, January 16, and weeks passed that investigators realized the man from Burger King and the frantic man from Walmart were both the same person: Mark.
His family was immediately concerned when he didn’t arrive home the next day and knew something was wrong. Mark had two sons, and his sisters claimed he would never abandon his kids.
“Mark was a happy, loving person. He loved life; he loved people. He loved his family, and he loved his boys most of all,” Pam recalled.
Once he was reported missing, investigators searched the area, and canines tracked Mark’s scent to a riverbank.
“The dogs were able to pick up a scent, and they tracked that scent all the way over to the Hazard bypass, through the yard next to the river, to the dam. And that’s where they lost the scent,” Allen explained.
Allen believes Mark went to the Kentucky River, but the harsh winter conditions prevented authorities from finding him.
“If he did go in that river down there, then it will never be known. It will never be known,” Allen said.
Mark’s sisters, on the other hand, think murder was the cause of his disappearance, as walking out on his family would’ve been completely out of character for him.
“He was definitely murdered. Definitely the wrong place, with the wrong people, at the wrong time,” Pam stated.
The murderer who killed the high school student one day before Mark vanished was ultimately convicted and sentenced to 25 years behind bars. Investigators looked into the possibility that Mark’s disappearance was related to the murder, but no evidence to support this theory was ever found.
Mark’s case was turned over to Kentucky State Police, who conducted searches in nearby lakes and rivers. Authorities also tested blood spatter discovered in one vehicle, yet no clues were uncovered.
Now, Mark has remained missing for over 30 years, and his family continues looking for answers.
His son, Mark Hensley, was only a baby at the time he disappeared. Hensley expressed how much he wishes to know what happened to his father.
“It would mean everything to me. I think about him every day. Every day. There’s not a day that goes by that I don’t think about it,” Hensley shared.
In 2019, Allen said Mark’s case remained open. Nonetheless, since so much time had passed, he doubted a confession was on the horizon.
“Until my dying day, I’ll wonder what happened to him. To me, nothing would be worse than to not know,” he admitted.
“I think at this point in time now, if somebody did do something to him, it would have to be a death-bed confession or something that they want to make just to clear their conscience.”
As for Mark’s family, they issued a plea to anyone with information.
“If anybody knows, please tell. Please tell us. Please tell the police because we want to know,” Pam begged.
Mark was six feet tall, weighed 160 pounds, and had brown hair and blue eyes. He was last seen wearing blue jeans, a blue flannel shirt, a black denim jacket, and a green baseball cap.
If you have any information regarding his case, you are urged to contact the Kentucky State Police Post 13 at (606) 435-6069 or the Hazard Police Department at (606) 436-2222.
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